Can President Obama Use ‘Executive Action’ to Take Away Gun Rights?

Joe Biden says a lot of dumb things. It’s like he doesn’t even think before the words tumble out of his mouth, like when he asked the guy in the wheelchair to stand up, or mentioned that you can’t even go into a 7-Eleven without an Indian accent these days. He’s endlessly entertaining -- at least until you realize he’s second in line for the presidency. That’s another one of his bloopers, by the way ... he’s actually first in line. The Speaker of the House is second.

Anyway. Good ol’ Joe spoke to the press before a meeting with victims of gun violence, and hinted that the president might sign an executive order to combat gun violence. Given the administration’s policy toward gun rights, the insinuation seems to be that Obama is considering banning guns by executive order.

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Biden said:

The president is going to act .... There are executives orders, there's executive action that can be taken. We haven't decided what that is yet. But we're compiling it all with the help of the attorney general and the rest of the cabinet members as well as legislative action that we believe is required.

That is the same attorney general that approved Operation Fast and Furious, which used taxpayer money to arm Mexican drug cartels and killed two federal agents and hundreds of innocent Mexican citizens, but I’m sure he’s qualified to offer an opinion on gun control.

Back to this whole executive order thing: The president cannot overturn parts of the Constitution that he doesn’t like. Banning our Second Amendment right to bear arms is as ludicrous as banning free speech, or disallowing women the vote. There is a process for changing federal laws, and it must be followed.

It’s almost like our founding fathers set up a system of government that makes it difficult to change our Constitutional rights. It’s called checks and balances, and it saves us from becoming a dictatorship. No matter where you fall on the gun control debate, the idea that a president could sign an executive order against any of our rights as Americans is scary.

It’s doubtful that President Obama has any intention of doing anything like that, and this is probably just the vice president speaking off-script again (seriously -- it’s like he doesn’t even realize there are cameras on him). I may not be Obama’s biggest fan, but I have faith that he won’t bypass the legislative process for a pet issue.

Have no fear, gun owners of America. Your gun rights are safe ... for now at least.

Do you think the president should be able to use executive action to ramp up gun control?